Firmware release procedures

Release procedure

Here is a draft of a BIOS release procedure.

Stage one: EC:

• Quanta e-mails EC release and changelog to the OLPC BIOS contact, signed and encrypted with PGP
  • see notes below
• Quanta and OLPC test this version of EC

Stage two: Buildrom:

• Pull EC release from http://dev.laptop.org/pub/ec/, check hashes
• Update buildrom changelog and tag for release
• Update SPI flash version string in buildrom binary
• Create buildrom SRPM
• Build two flavors of binary RPM for the two RAM variants

Stage three: Testing:

• announce build to BIOS team and Ray, release candidate testing begins
• test on a 256M board
• install the binary RPMs on Tinderbox machines
• >12 hours of burn-in warm reboot testing on Tinderbox
• cold boot tests
  • we need a cold boot solution; X10 doesn't seem to like the power at OLPC
• After automated tests, send "Who has tested?" mail asking for problem reports
• Release after twelve hours if no problem reports

Stage four: Release:

• Release builds kept in a separate directory
• Update the version number in LB from release candidate to final
• Announce new build and hashes to devel-boards@ (requires moderation).

Using PGP for EC code

For first release only

Download and run ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/gnupg-w32cli-1.4.5.exe

Download and install Thunderbird from http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

Download Enigmail from http://www.mozilla-enigmail.org/downloads/enigmail-0.94.1.1-tb15-linux.xpi

Download http://dev.laptop.org/pub/ec/olpc-bios-key.pub ; this will be the key that the mail is encrypted to.

Run Thunderbird

Set up an e-mail account; when asked for name, use "Quanta OLPC BIOS"

Tools menu->Extensions:

• Click install, find downloaded Enigmail .xpi
• Restart Thunderbird

OpenPGP menu->Key Management:

• choose "No", don't use wizard
• Generate menu->new key pair:
  • Enter passphrase twice
  • Set key expiry to 2 months
  • Supply key fingerprint to OLPC out-of-band
  • It is vital that the private key file (secring.gpg) is kept secure, and is not distributed from the computer it was created on

Tools menu->Account Settings->OpenPGP Security:

• OpenPGP support should be enabled
• Check "Encrypt messages by default" and "Sign encrypted messages by default"

Tools menu->Account Settings->Copies & folders:

• Uncheck "Place a copy in"

Tools menu->Account Settings->Composition & Addressing:

• Uncheck "Compose messages in HTML format"

OpenPGP menu->Key Management:

• File menu->Import keys from file
• Choose the downloaded olpc-bios-key.pub file

For subsequent releases

Click "Write":

• To: bios@laptop.org
• OpenPGP menu->"Send My Public Key"
• Attach changelog
• Attach EC file
• Click "Send"
• Choose "inline pgp"